French tanker on fire in Yemen

SAN'A, Yemen -- An explosion and fire engulfed a French oil tanker on Sunday off the coast of Yemen, and the tanker owner said a small boat struck the vessel in a "deliberate attack."

Yemeni officials, however, said there was no indication the tanker was attacked and that the fire was caused by an oil leak. French officials said it was still too early to say if the explosion was an act of terrorism.

"We don't have enough elements to allow us to formulate a ... hypothesis which would point to a terrorist attack," French Foreign Ministry spokesman Francois Rivasseau said Sunday night in Paris.

France will quickly send investigators to Yemen, President Jacques Chirac's office said after Chirac spoke by phone with Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Yemen's prime minister, Abdul-Kader Bajammal, formed a special committee to investigate.

Yemeni officials said a leak caused the fire on the vessel, named the Limburg, about three miles off the port of Mina al-Dabah.

The Limburg's captain, Hubert Ardillon, said the fire set off an explosion while crewmen tried to get the blaze under control, an unidentified Yemeni official told the state-run SABA news agency. He said efforts were being made to contain oil leakage from the ship.

Deliberate act?

But Jacques Moizan, director of Euronav, which owns the tanker said the explosion was a "deliberate act." He said a smaller ship struck the starboard side of the Limburg.

Euronav's financial and administrative director, Alain Ferre, said a crewmember saw a fishing boat pull up toward the tanker before the blast at 9:15 a.m. Ferre speculated it could not have caused such a huge blast unless it was carrying explosives.

Moizan said it was not sure that the smaller vessel was a fishing boat. "I cannot provide details about the description of the small boat that hit the starboard," Moizan told The Associated Press, adding, "We believe it was a deliberate act. It was not an accident."

There were also reports that the explosion occurred as a pilot boat was readying to escort the tanker into Mina al-Dabah.

In October 2000, suicide attackers on a small explosive-laden vessel struck the USS Cole during a refueling stop at Aden port. The blast killed 17 U.S. sailors and was blamed on al-Qaida.

Ship had crew of 25

Security has since been tightened at Yemeni ports. Yemen has been eager to emphasize its commitment to the U.S.-led war on terror and shake off its reputation as a hotbed of extremism -- it is believed to have been a longtime base for suspected members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida, the terror network blamed for Sept. 11, and is the bin Laden family's ancestral home.

The French Foreign Ministry said the Limburg was carrying 25 crew members. Ferre said the crew included eight French and 17 Bulgarians. One Bulgarian was missing and the rest of the crew were in a hotel in Yemen, he said.

Ferre said some crew members jumped into the water and were rescued, while others tried to put out the fire until it became clear the flames were no longer under control.

"To our knowledge, there have been no deaths," the French Foreign Ministry said.

French prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, told reporters it was "too early to comment" on the cause of the blast.

397,749 barrels of crude

The Yemeni news agency, SABA, reported that the government had asked the Canadian oil firm Nexen Inc. to help clean up the oil spill after the blast

The Yemeni officials said the tanker was carrying carrying 397,749 barrels of crude from the Iranian port of Khark and was due to take on more at Mina al-Dabah, 496 miles southeast of the capital San'a.

Euronav, however, said the ship, built in 2000, had filled up with oil in Saudi Arabia and had planned to load up with more oil in Yemen before heading to Malaysia.

The port, 353 miles east of Aden, is relatively quiet and is used mainly by tankers to load oil.

A Bahrain-based spokesman for the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, which has aircraft carriers, destroyers and other ships in the Gulf and Arabian Sea, said the French tanker's fire had prompted no changes in U.S. security measures.

"We are always on a security posture ready for any kind of situation," Lt. Chris Davis said without elaborating.

The Bahrain-based Maritime Liaison Office, which coordinates communication between the U.S. Navy and the commercial shipping in the Gulf and Arabian Sea, issued an advisory in September warning ships of the possibility al-Qaida was planning attacks on oil tankers.